


star scatter.

by evanlinge



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Other, Overuse Of Parentheses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7427032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanlinge/pseuds/evanlinge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Namikaze Minato is a no-name, clan-less, orphan. </p><p> </p><p>Or: Jiraiya spends the next decade and a half after Minato setting his heart back to rights. He never quite manages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	star scatter.

 

Namikaze Minato is a no-name, clan-less, orphan: in Konoha, he is worth only what he makes of himself. Namikaze Minato is a no-name, clan-less, orphan: he is nothing but a slip of bones and meat and flesh with some unknown brilliance crushed in-between. He does not know it but someday history will look back on him and say “Namikaze Minato was a no-name, clan-less, orphan,” and history will say, “this is how great shinobi begin.”

 

In his first year at the Academy Minato is merely one of many. He's clever, a little strange in how quickly he grasps the concepts taught; a little strange in the way he can't seem to focus on one thing or another for too long before his attention wanders and Matsuko-sensei is saying “If you'd redirect your attention back to the lesson, Minato-kun,” somewhat wryly. A little strange in how his marks are consistently in the top two percent.

 

At age six Minato is small in comparison to his third year classmates and for all his prodigious aim and skill at ninjutsu, his size is a vulnerability in taijutsu class.

“Get up Namikaze,” says Ume-sensei once more. There are bruises blooming across Minato's shoulder blades and he can taste something metallic pooling behind his teeth. He gets up. He doesn't go down again.

 

Minato is tenacious (“Ambitious,” says Ume-sensei), and incurably persistent in his desire to _know_. Minato, it seems, wants to open up the stars themselves, to unlock the secrets of the universe just to take it apart and see how it ticks. (he'd put it back together, afterwards)

 

* * *

 

Before he takes on his first genin team, Jiraiya goes through the brats' Academy reports. He doesn't have much experience with teaching– three bedraggled, idealistic, orphans in Ame aren't exactly his student template, and seeing his potential genins laid out in black and white is oddly sobering: _Uchiha Akira, class ranking: tenth, inclination towards traps and stealth (recommended for genjutsu training), average chakra control, potential leadership skills (see psyche profile). Hitoshi Ren, class ranking: sixth, inclination towards ninjutsu, proficient at target practice (see score sheets), below average chakra control, exceptionally driven (see psyche profile). Namikaze Minato, class ranking: first (advanced placement, see reports), inclination towards ninjutsu, proficient in taijutsu (see score sheets), above average chakra control (recommended for medic-nin training), exceptionally intelligent (see psyche profile)_.

 

The truth is, Jiraiya loves those genin at once– Akira's aggressive charisma, Ren's sharp tongue and sharper smile, and little Minato's bright-eyed curiosity. Jiraiya loves those brats, and he loves them all equally. (this is a lie)

 

* * *

 

Team Jiraiya enters the chūnin exams in Kumo when Minato is ten. They all make chūnin– even Jiraiya is surprised.

“Your team is pretty impressive,” says Hatake Sakumo (“the White Fang!” Ren hisses), “you must be a good teacher Jiraiya,”

Jiraiya's booming laugh rings out and he ruffles Akira's hair into further disarray, but she's grinning too widely to fake annoyance.

 

* * *

 

Ren dies first, ambushed by Kiri-nin on a routine escort mission with his chūnin squad, poison rotting his lungs from the inside out. Ren is civilian-born (a no-name, clan-less, orphan), and Minato and Akira are the only shinobi there to watch as his name is chiselled into the Memorial Stone. _Hitoshi Ren_ , it reads in small characters on the fifty-sixth row.

“I thought he'd outlive us both,” says Akira. Minato says nothing.

 

Akira dies second, a solo-mission to Suna and a moment too slow to avoid the rogue-nin's blade when it opens her up from shoulder to hip. Akira is an Uchiha, and Minato learns that with her last breath she'd burnt her own eyes out of her skull to avoid them being taken.

“Harvested,” says the messenger from the Office of Internal Affairs. “Honourable,” says Akira's mother at her funeral. Minato imagines her berry-red _Sharingan_ burning, the two tomoe whirling lazily in each eye like fish in a pond. He is the last of Team Jiraiya. Somewhere, buried deep behind his ribcage, he hopes he out-lives his teacher. (this is a lie. somewhere, buried deep behind his ribcage, he'd rather cut his own throat than live to see Jiraiya dead)

 

Jiraiya takes on Minato as his sole apprentice.

 

* * *

 

Even before he cracks the _Hiraishin_ Jiraiya knows that Minato is fast. By the time the kid makes chūnin he is nearly as fast as Jiraiya himself– a lightning storm of lithe, flexible limbs and _quickquickquick_ jabs of still too-small palms.

Minato is tenacious (“Ambitious,” says his psyche profile. Jiraiya thinks it's a load of shit), and eager to learn; always ready to turn his terrifying focus on Jiraiya and absorb every scrap of knowledge he has to offer. It's sort of overwhelming– Jiraiya knows that someday soon Minato is going to surpass him in every conceivable way, but for now it's nostalgic and kind of flattering to watch the kid look at Jiraiya like he built the cosmos and everything in it just for Minato to decipher. (Minato never stops looking at him that way)

 

* * *

 

Minato never falls in love with his teacher. (this is a lie)

 

* * *

 

Jiraiya gets updates on his apprentice when he and Minato have separate assignments, possibly because the Sandaime has a soft spot for Jiraiya, and possibly because he _knows_ what Jiraiya sees in Minato. The kid retrieves the Kyuubi's jinchūriki– “Kushina,” Minato smiles, just a little, “and she says she 'damn well could have retrieved herself',”– and when Jiraiya gets back from Tea Country Minato broaches the subject of fūinjutsu, carefully, like he's afraid his teacher might turn him down. (Jiraiya doesn't think he'd turn him down for anything)

 

Sometimes, Jiraiya sees Minato a little differently. Like an image that's been altered just a fraction– an extra shadow here, a strange depth there, and Minato with his blue eyes huge in his narrow face. He reminds Jiraiya of the fae legends: clever, preternaturally- _other_ creatures, all sunshine hair, sharp teeth, and gleaming eyes. Minato is remarkably gifted at fūinjutsu.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Jiraiya talks about his apprentice when he's drunk, commiserating with Sakumo and Orochimaru– “He cracked that seal like it was nothing! It took me three days to make it! He's a bright little thing, that one,” Jiraiya grins. (bright like the sun burning out, bright like a flash of gold and a supernova beneath his skin)

 

“A little too bright, maybe,” says Orochimaru, looking bemused.

 

* * *

 

This is the truth: Jiraiya doesn't talk about his first genin team. He does talk about Minato. It's nearly disgraceful how much Jiraiya loves that kid, the ocean of unbearable _fondness_ that takes up residence in his veins and arteries when Minato comes to him, radiant, saying, “I figured it out Sensei!” (Jiraiya doesn't know it yet but he'll spend the next decade and a half after Minato setting his heart back to rights. he never quite manages)

 

 

 

 


End file.
